'The Alienist: Angel Of Darkness' Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Another kidnap and personal dramas make for a tense watch
Murderous Libby Hatch is still at large. Her gruesome exploits are far from over and she has found another baby to kidnap. Chilling, with her hair flowing around her, yet crooning a child to sleep, Libby makes for the perfect antagonist in 'The Alienist: Angel Of Darkness'. Now, don't we all feel rather abominably silly for thinking that she was particularly harmless in the first place? With each episode, Libby is keen to prove that she is devious in more ways than one, and kidnapping children is just one of her methods.
Meanwhile, the trio of Kreizler, Sara and John Moore try to understand the disturbances in Libby's life that seem to have molded her into a complete psychopath. Of course, there's a dark past that involves unhappy parentage, as Libby reveals while she stands alarmingly close to the edge of a terrace, holding a baby. Considering Libby's grisly knack for murders, this scene does leave an impact on you as you fear what Libby might do with the child. The fears are not unfounded.
Nevertheless, as Libby carries on undeterred, Sara's reputation is maligned in the papers for letting Libby get away in the previous episode. John's father-in-law to be is responsible for this and he is determined to bring some cheer to his brattish daughter Violet's life. She is downright miserable as John seems to be only interested in one person in his life, and that's Sara. She is yet to know that the two slept together in the previous episode, but that's a story for another day, we're guessing.
The tropes here are unmissable — evil father-in-law, crochety fiancee — and this takes away from the novelty of 'The Alienist: Angel Of Darkness', as the show works best with its subtleties, nuances and just glances between the characters. John and Sara seemed to have reached an impasse in their relationship again and prefer not to address their little scandal. While it's always a joy to watch the combustible chemistry between the two, their storyline seems to be unfolding in rather predictable circumstances.
The intriguing part of the episode was Kreizler, who suffers a crisis that is both personal and professional. His little friend Paulie decides to do something tragic to himself. Though he is saved in time, Kreizler comes under fire for letting something like this take place under his watch. The heightened emotions in these scenes were palpable and Daniel Brühl did a remarkable job of tapping into the raw emotions of Kreizler, while still remaining restrained. Nevertheless, Kreizler's personal life might just be as interesting as John and Sara's soon, we might have to follow his storyline even more closely, as a romance might be on the horizon.
This episode was more gripping than the previous one and paves the way for more questions than answers. Two episodes of 'The Alienist: Angel Of Darkness' air on TNT, Sundays, beginning at 9 pm.